December 13,  2012 by Mary Killelea

I am a huge fan of Amy Porterfield, she and I connected on Facebook
awhile back. We both love Facebook Marketing.
I am thrilled to help her promote her new
product that really breaks Facebook Marketing down into easy to follow steps!

Please watch her video!

In order to thrive in growing your business using online
marketing strategies you need a few KEY things:

1. The right tools
2. Traffic
3. Conversions

It’s simple when you know exactly what to do.

Luckily for you, right now there is one resource
you can to leverage to achieve these 3 things.

That resource is……… Facebook!

With close to 1 Billion members on Facebook
there is no question this is the best place online
to get more leads, traffic, and sales.

Are you making the most out of it right now
or letting your competitors take the leads from you?

Seriously you gotta see this video

You’ll learn exactly what you need
to do to create more fans on Facebook and how to
turn them into Super Fans!
Cheers to a prosperous 2012!

April 21, 2011 by Mary Killelea

Today I attended the 2011 eMarketing Summit and once again it was a wonderful event filled with useful sessions that highlighted areas in the world of Social Marketing, Search and Mobile Marketing.

The highlight for me for sure was the presentation on The Mobile Marketing Frontier by Aron Ezra, CEO Macroview Labs. It was hard not to be overwhelmed by the numbers and opportunity he presented in the Mobile arena.  Here are some of the interesting stats he provided. 

650,000 Smart phones are activated daily

over 350,000 apps are available in the Apple App Store

there have been over 10 BILLION downloads

mobile searches are up 500% in the last 2 years.

more time is spent by users on their smart phones browsing the web than talking on their phones

Ask yourself if you accidently left your wallet and your mobile phone behind some where like on a bus, which would you be more concerned about retrieving? The majority say their phone!

Another interesting take away from Aron’s presentation was and I am summarizing this is, that just like social media the value or motivation for a company has to be engagement with users not so much sales - sales will come thru user engagement, exposure of your business, and the interation you create. If you are looking to create an app don’t create for the sole purpose of making a buck. Create apps that are free, more peope will sample them and use them as opposed to even selling them for .99 cents.  There are ways to monitize it not at the expense of customers but think out side the box at partnerships or sponsors, while still making it accessible to users for free.

Each company is unique and each purpose and function and desired engagement from their audience is unquie - know your audience, test your apps, listen to feedback and study the anyaltics and if you can afford to test amoungst focus groups do so.

Developing a mobile site  is different from a regular website, KNOW what you’re doing or hire an expert in mobile development, there are compability & design issues that need to be addressed. Users use their desktops differently than they use their mobile phones — don’t just recreate your site in a mobile version. When designing think of of the users reason for looking up your site via thier phone vs. the desktop, understand their reason for engagement, help them understand and appreciate their reason for engagement. If you have a mobile site promote that from your website - share that info with your users to build your relationship with them.  Some of your users depending on your offering or business type might be android users vs. iphone users. This is valuable information keep this in mind when you are designing your mobile site or app. 

Lastly the biggest take away from Aron’s presentation which I don’t think people get yet is  MOBILE MARKETING should be a part of your marketing mix. I still believe as a business you should try and increase your web presence thru SEO and Social Media like facebook and seriously consider mobile marketing as another opportunity to build your brand!

by Mary Killelea on August 9, 2009

This week Twitter servers were down for a bit due to a server attack. Then those that were freaking out went to facebook and caused their server to go down for  a bit too.

Even though it doesn’t seem like a big deal for twitter to be down for a bit or for facebook to go down for a few minutes it is a HUGE deal if all of your marketing efforts are only utilizing one social media channel.  So let’s say you only use Twitter as your means of marketing. How vulnerable and frustrated were you when Twitter was down?

This is a valuable lesson that goes to show you, you should never, ever rely on one service to get your message out.

Twitter is great and is a fun platform for engaging people, and if you’re doing it correctly and adding content of value to Twitter most likely you are seeing some good traffic benefits from participating on Twittere.  But you shouldn’t be using JUST Twitter (or any other service) to communicate with your customers, readers or clients.

It is so important to also get a Facebook fan page. One easy way is to do what I have done. I have added a facebook widget on my blog .. check out the one on this page where you can easily become a fan.  Also another important thing to do as a business owner/marketer is to start collecting email subscribers so you can communicate with them directly and encourage RSS subscriptions and make it easy for RSS readers to also have the ability to get your feeds via email as well.

By offering these variety of ways to get your message out you can reach your fans, friends and subscribers through a variety of channels eliminating your frustration if Twitter or Facebook goes down. You still have other avenues of marketing tactics to get your message out and continue on with your daily business goals.

Why should you be on Twitter or Facebook.. here is some quick stats:

Twitter.com is a top 50 site that reaches over 27 million U.S. monthly people. The site attracts a slightly more female than male group

Facebook.com is a top 10 site that reaches over 91 million U.S. monthly people. The site attracts a more affluent, teen and young adult, very slightly female biased following.

 Whether you have a huge number of followers or a huge number of fans an important thing to recognize is the  goal with social media isn’t just to gain a  large numbers of subscribers or followers. (If they’re un-targeted subscribers, perhaps people who are just following you so that you follow them back, they’re pretty much worthless). What you want and need to do with social media is attract people interested in you, in your niche and then funnel them into other channels, other places, where you can reach them.

Keep in mind too that people prefer different methods of communication. Again another reason to make sure your marketing message is utlizing the various social media channels. One person might love email and hate Facebook, have a Twitter account but never use it and be a casual RSS reader.  Another person might never check their email, RSS feeds or Twitter but be live on Facebook.

Your job as a successful business marketer is to be in contact with your audience, potential customers, clients, reader, subscribers in whatever medium or platform they choose and are comfortable with.  You need to be where they are.  You need to be right there in front of them whenever they open up their favorite app or web address to see what’s happening.

In closing here are the take aways fromt this article.  You must diversify your Social media mix.  Good luck!

I am currently working on putting together an Internet marketing strategy for one of my clients.  There are a lot of standard points to follow but it is important to treat each customer uniquely as their goals are unique to their own business goals.  So use your tool box of knowledge to customize specific marketing strategies for each of your clients.

Having an Internet Marketing Strategy (which is a term that has grown quite popular in recent months) can be beneficial in many ways.

The goal is to get more traffic, enhance your branding, and sell more products  |  The solution and approach is all in the strategy.

Below is a list of 10 things to help you get started:

1. Start with an effective web design and development strategy. Have a good website that people trust, is easy to navigate, they like it and they can gain beneficial information from it or at they can be entertained by it.  Give them a reason to visit and a reason to stay!
2. Get ranked at the top in major search engines, and practice good Search Optimization Techniques.  — INVEST IN THIS!! You can have the best site ever but if you don’t get eyes on it .. you wont do any business.
3. Learn to use Email Marketing Effectively - there are some very successful techniques and strategies around email marketing to emulate.
4. Dominate your marketing niche with affiliate, reseller, and associate programs. (Make extra passive income as well)
5. Request an analysis from an Internet marketing coach or Internet marketing consultant. — Sometimes you are too close the forest that you can’t see the trees!
6. Build a responsive opt-in email list. - Worth GOLD! Don’t ever abuse it and become a spammer or sell lists.
7. Publish articles or get listed in news stories.  -  Worth the time or worth the cost of outsourcing it.
8. Write and publish online press releases. - Worth the time or worth the cost of outsourcing it.
9. Facilitate and run contests and giveaways via your web site. - Give reasons for customers to come back and interact with you. Everyone Loves the thought of winning something FREE.
10. Blog and interact with your visitors. - Create and Build relationships with your customers!